Evaluation Results
Perceptions
(Did the participants like the professional development experience
and find it valuable?): The IRIS professional development
program is extremely well regarded by all participants and they
consider the experience to be a valuable use of their time (Figure
2). Participant
perceptions of the IRIS professional development experience are
consistent with most professional development offered by other
science and research organizations. Surveying participants as
part of the workshop resulted in a 96% response rate for the measurement
of perception data.
Learning (Did the participants learn the intended material?): As a result of the workshop all participants responded that their preparedness to teach students about seismic waves, plate tectonics, earth structure, and earthquake effects, hazards, and risks had increased. Questions to assess participant learning were added to the survey prior to the 2003 national NSTA workshop. Therefore data regarding participant learning is preliminary and only reflective of the workshop offered at the national NSTA convention where the response rate was 100%.)
Transfer (Will they use it when they return to their classrooms?): For the follow-up survey, a response rate of 39% was achieved through two mailings.
- 74% of the workshop participants report increasing the amount of time they spend teaching seismology or related topics in their classroom as a result of participating in the IRIS professional development experience.
- 86% of participants report using at-least one activity modeled during the workshop upon returning to their classrooms.
- An average of 4.5 modeled activities were used per teacher
- In contrast, only 13% of teachers used activities that were made available to participants in the form of handouts at the workshop but were not modeled during the workshop.
Attributes (Who are the participants?): IRIS has compiled
participant attribute data for the National NSTA workshop only, as the
longevity of this data set allows for an acceptable representation of
participants attending this venue to be created.
- 85% of participants are Female
- 91% of participants identify themselves as white
- 78% of participants will have at least 7 or more years of teaching experience (Figure 3)
*Note: Similar data for all attendees at the National NSTA convention is not collected by NSTA, therefore no comparison is possible.
Conclusions
Providing educators with a learning experience that seeks to increase teachers' "comfort" in the classroom, the IRIS professional development program has been successful in effecting the identified outcome; "Earth science and seismology will be more broadly and effectively taught in K-16 schools."
Focusing On
- increasing educators' foundation in seismology and earth science,
- providing educators with a variety of high-quality (based on the NSES), scientifically accurate activities to deliver content to students, and
- providing educators with experiences involving both the content and the educational activities as the primary method of instruction has resulted in teachers actively transferring the learning and resources gained as part of the workshop to their classroom.
Positive impacts on student learning of seismology related topics can be reasonably inferred from the number of participating educators reporting an increase in the amount of time spent on seismology and the number of activities used by participants (learned as part of the workshop.) (However, IRIS has made no attempt to assess the learning of students in the classes of educators that have participated in the IRIS professional development workshop.)
Employment of a continuous improvement model and on-going, multi-leveled evaluation program are critical components of successful professional development programs.
Future development of the IRIS professional development program should focus on:
- Developing a more systemic professional development program with partnering educational institutions
- Developing new tools to efficiently evaluate workshop participant learning.
- Further refinement of workshop activities and content based on future follow-up surveys.
